ss and pleasure as the Meneaska looked at her. Boys
with miniature bows and arrows were wandering over the plains, little
naked children were running along on foot, and numberless dogs were
scampering among the feet of the horses. The young braves, gaudy with
paint and feathers, were riding in groups among the crowd, and often
galloping, two or three at once along the line, to try the speed of
their horses. Here and there you might see a rank of sturdy pedestrians
stalking along in their white buffalo robes. These were the dignitaries
of the village, the old men and warriors, to whose age and experience
that wandering democracy yielded a silent deference. With the rough
prairie and the broken hills for its background, the restless scene
was striking and picturesque beyond description. Days and weeks made me
familiar with it, but never impaired its effect upon my fancy.

As we moved on the broken column grew yet more scattered and disorderly,
until, as we approached the foot of a hill, I saw the old men before
mentioned seating themselves in a line upon the ground, in advance of
the whole. They lighted a pipe and sat smoking, laughing, and telling
stories, while the people, stopping as they successively came up, were
soon gathered in a crowd behind them. Then the old men rose, drew their
buffalo robes over their shoulders, and strode on as before. Gaining the
top of the hill, we found a very steep declivity before us. There was
not a minute's pause. The whole descended in a mass, amid dust and
confusion. The horses braced their feet as they slid down, women and
children were screaming, dogs yelping as they were trodden upon, while
stones and earth went rolling to the bottom. In a few moments I could
see the village from the summit, spreading again far and wide over the
plain below.

At our encampment that afternoon I was attacked anew by my old disorder.
In half an hour the strength that I had been gaining for a week past had
vanished again, and I became like a man in a dream. But at sunset I lay
down in the Big Crow's lodge and slept, totally unconscious till the
morning. The first thing that awakened me was a hoarse flapping over my
head, and a sudden light that poured in upon me. The camp was breaking
up, and the squaws were moving the covering from the lodge. I arose and
shook off my blanket with the feeling of perfect health; but scarcely
had I gained my feet when a sense of my helpless condition was once more
forc